TV Investigation Reveals
Lapses In Navy Security

Sometimes a local news investigation has far-reaching national implications.
During the summer of  2000, investigative team members at WABC-TV, New York, began testing U. S. Naval security on the East Coast.

Caught Off Guard

Seventeen sailors died when the USS Cole was bombed by terrorists in the port at Yemen on October 12th.

On the morning of the explosion, WABC-TV investigative reporter Jim Hoffer was in a small rental boat testing the security of the Cole's home port of Norfolk.
He was motoring among Navy ships unchallenged by Navy security. He was close enough to actually reach out and touch the side of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier!

Hoffer and photographer Bryan White had no idea that halfway around the world a boat full of explosives had blown a hole in the side of the Cole. The news crew's visit was part of an investigation that had been underway for two months.

Suddenly, his beeper went off again and again. What could the desk in New York want?

They did not rush their story to air

A mighty, sophisticated American warship had been badly damaged by terrorist murderers in a small boat.
How could this happen?
The WABC investigation stateside appeared to be very relevant to answering that question as officials reviewed the attack.

The news executives made sure they had the full story before airing anything.
"Regardless of what happened with the Cole, we needed to speak to the Navy, and get their position on how they secure these ports. They were in no position to talk to us at that point," said Dan Forman, News Director.
At the same time, the information WABC had was clearly an important story.
"Once the Cole happened, we needed to air the story as soon as we could, as long as we had the full story," said Forman.

It was clear the potential existed for attacks here at home.
"It is always important when you are dealing with possible terrorism that you be careful that you are not giving anyone any ideas. We wanted to make sure we got the story out there to bring pressure to bear and get something done about protecting these ports," he added.

The Navy was slow to respond to the station's request for information.
Not only were officials dealing with the bombing of the Cole, it was embarrassing for them.
"We tried to talk to as many experts as we could --- including retired admirals and congressmen who oversee various committees," said Forman.

The Navy finally sent a written response.
"Then, we had to decide when to put the story on television. I felt it had to be done sooner, rather than later. Ultimately the timing worked out well. We didn't want this to be a sweeps stunt story. We had people who had died," he explained.
Forman felt it was important to run the story outside of sweeps, yet they wanted to hold it until after the bodies of the sailors were brought home and the memorials were over.

It ran at the end of October.
"The downside for us was that we were in the middle of the World Series here in New York, and we wanted to make certain the story would be seen," he explained.

An 8-minute piece ran at 6 p.m., 11 p.m. and on the morning newscast.
"I wanted every day-part of our audience to see this important piece of journalism. It is one of the most important pieces we have done here in quite a while, so we 'roadblocked' it. We put it across the newscasts at 6, 11 and the next morning," said Forman.

The original promo that was produced before the Cole bombing was scrapped.
Instead, anchor Bill Beutel stood at the anchor desk and explained that recently 17 sailors lost their lives. He told viewers that before the attack, the WABC investigative team had been looking into whether the nation's ports were secure here at home, and found they were not. "He invited viewers to join us for a very important story on Navy security. It wasn't like any promo viewers are used to seeing here, and it got a lot of attention. People felt it was something different, and that the story was significant and important," Forman said.
The story played to a national audience. The entire report aired on CNN. A shorter version of the package ran on ABC.

Forman said letters from viewers were representative of what managers thought about the story, too.
Many congratulated the station on the story, and were appalled by the lax security at Navy bases.
Others complimented them on a good job, but also questioned whether such an investigation showed how easy it is to do damage to our Navy.
"I knew someone would worry that this story might encourage it. I called one person back and explained that the Navy has a chance to do something about this before anything happens," said Forman.

Reporter Hoffer said they were very careful not to make this a how-to report.
"We made a conscious effort to not detail where we rented our boats or how we got into the harbors. In some cases we maneuvered for several miles to get into the harbors. There was no 'road map,'" he stressed.

Reporter suspected Navy's problem

Hoffer had wanted to do this story for some time. When he was a reporter for an ABC affiliate in Connecticut, he did a story on land-based security at the submarine base in Groton, Connecticut.
"We found it quite lax, and as a result of our story they added more guards. As we were doing the story, people told us we should check the water side, 'the back door,'" he said.
Finally, he had the chance to pursue it. He worked with Assistant News Director Ken Plotnik, photographer Bryan White, and producer Daniela Royes.

The WABC investigators started in Groton.
They rolled video inside the car as they drove up to the main entrance. An alert guard was on duty. He turned them away, saying you needed to be with a military person to see the submarines.

They rented a boat and checked to see how close they could get to the ships by approaching across the harbor.
"Sure enough. We were able to get within feet of nuclear-powered submarines, and to linger there. We were there 30 or 40 minutes," he said.

They used a home video camera.
The photographer was in the boat taking pictures of the subs and of Hoffer. "Someone had to see us doing this. There were plenty of people on these ships," he said.
This Groton check was disturbing. But what did they have? Was it a one time fluke?
"We wanted to know if this was an isolated case, or if it was systemic in the Navy," Hoffer explained.
The news crew proceeded to check out two other eastern American bases: one in New Jersey, where fuel and munitions are loaded onto the ships; and the other was Norfolk, the world's largest naval base.

While at the munitions base, Hoffer was impressed with how close it was to New York City.
"You could look down the bay, and clearly see lower Manhattan. Again, we were able to breech the security on two different occasions," he said.

The reporter said it was an amazing set of coincidences in Norfolk.
"We went out on the morning of the Cole attack, having no idea that story was breaking," said Hoffer.
"We left at 6 a.m. We spent about 90 minutes meandering by these ships, getting close enough to touch them, and in the case of the USS Enterprise, actually touching it," he said.
"Our pagers kept going off. We finally got back to the pier at around 9 a.m., and I called in. The producer told me what had happened. It is an indelible moment. I will never forget it. We were standing on the dock, after 20 minutes earlier we had touched an aircraft carrier in the home port of the Cole," he said.

During the whole time they were motoring among the naval ships, no one challenged them. Not once.
"Not once did people tell us we were too close, or to get away, or even ask what we were doing. We saw people, and they must have seen us," he said.

Security on the land side was not much better.
Hoffer said on the night of the attack in Yemen, a guard at gate of the Norfolk Naval Base waved their rented car right through, with no questions asked. For nearly four hours, the news crew roamed freely around the home port of the Cole.
They parked in the reserved space of a commanding officer, and left the car there unattended for 40 minutes --- right next to a submarine.
Hoffer also entered and walked around several buildings including a learning center, a galley, and a residence hall --- without ever being challenged by security.

The Navy declined an on-camera interview, but in a written statement explained that the threat level in the United States is relatively low, and that it establishes its security measures based on the anticipated threat.
"The Navy's response was, 'We have security, you just don't see it,'" said Hoffer.

The undercover portion of the project was ended the night of the Cole bombing. The video had been gathered.
They now needed some expert, responsible interpretation of what they had. They found many people with Navy expertise, but not many of them wanted to talk, because they still had ties to the government.
They were successful in securing interviews with three key individuals: a retired admiral, a former director of the National Security Agency, and a congressman who was pressing for an investigation.
"While we thought this showed a problem, it would be presumptuous to go on the air and say that it shows lax security. Does it really? We weren't 100 percent sure," Hoffer said.
"We needed people who had expertise to tell us it was a problem. Because of the seriousness of the investigation, and the bombing of the Cole, we didn't want to rush on the air with this story. It wouldn't be fair to the Navy, and would have compromised the thoroughness of the report," he added.
"To the credit of our News Director Dan Forman, and our Assistant News Director Kenny Plotnik, they insisted that we should have more time to make a case," said Hoffer.

A copy of the video was given to the Navy.
"We sent video of our investigation to the head of the Atlantic Command, so they could see it, know the gravity of it, and decide how to respond," he said.
That's when the Navy responded with its written statement.

"In our minds, we had given them every opportunity to respond, and had given them ample time to do so," Hoffer added.